Barbados has benefitted from about $120 million in grants as a result of international travel by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.
Mottley revealed in the House of Assembly yesterday that since she took office in May 2018, $1.45 million was spent on 93 trips overseas by her, about $15 000 for each journey, but she said this had paid off in the form of major financial support for the country.
The Prime Minister responded to Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne’s frequent criticism of her travel and his call to reveal the full cost, during her contribution to the Budget debate in the House of Assembly.
Having asked her office to prepare travel records from 2018, she said that “in seven years, the total amount comes to just about $1.45 million across 93 trips, with an average of $15 000 per trip.
“I don’t travel first class. I go at the last possible minute and return at the earliest possible minute. I do not stay in luxury suites, as was the wont of many a minister before this Government came into office.”
‘Paying off’
Mottley said, however, that travel to attend meetings of CARICOM, the United Nations, climate meetings, other individual meetings, and to deliver “one or two speeches” was paying off for Barbados.
“If I were only spending money, I wouldn’t mind, you might curse me [about] that $1.45 million,” she told the House.
“When the ministry prepared this, they included one figure that came at the beginning of 2018 and I don’t have nothing to hide. So I told [them] take that $27.6 million out. So subtract that from $146 887 000 in grant money, not loans. [Do] you know what grant money is? It [is] free.”
She said the Green Climate Fund “is in the area that I have been given the opportunity to be an advocate for globally, which is on climate, and that is where we’ve gotten the majority of grants”.
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